The Fifth Scenario (6)

I clutched my throbbing head — the price of overusing mana — and flopped flat onto the ground.

Thud.

"God, my head is killing me…"

I rolled my eyes upward to the system messages floating in front of my face.

No exaggeration — for forty-four straight hours, every minute that wasn't spent eating, using the bathroom, showering, or sleeping had gone into skill grinding.

Thanks to that, the skill levels did climb pretty high…

I shifted my gaze and checked the rest of the messages.

With that many skills, the flood of level-up messages left me looking thoroughly sick of the whole thing.

"Oppa… are you okay?"

"Yooseung… no. Oppa's not okay…"

Honestly, your oppa is one headache away from dying…

Shin Yooseung looked down at me sprawled on the filthy ground with worried eyes.

Normally, as her oppa, I would have at least pretended to be strong in front of her. Right now, that was impossible.

Forty-four hours of frantically grinding skill levels had wrecked both body and mind; I couldn't put strength into a single muscle.

Having a lot of skills is something you have to think carefully about…

More skills wasn't always better. That was exactly why I was stuck doing this hellish grind, wasn't it?

Yoo Joonghyuk is a real maniac too… wait, she's a woman here, so maniac girl?

I thought of the Yoo Joonghyuk I would soon meet, poisoned by Heavenly Demon Poison.

In the webtoon, when Kim Dokja used Character List on the collapsed, poisoned Yoo Joonghyuk, I remembered that almost every skill level in her attribute window had been Lv.9, with only a few exceptions.

Even thinking about it again, she was a monster of talent. Or more accurately, the incarnation of grinding and pure effort?

Anyway, enough about Yoo Joonghyuk. Let me quickly review the skill level-ups that actually needed explaining.

First, I'd expanded My Room. I'd increased it by about thirty pyeong in one go, which cost me a painful 18,000 coins.

So the original forty-pyeong My Room became seventy, and then the skill level-up added another ten, bringing the total to eighty pyeong.

It was now big enough to store more gear — or ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even give each party member their own room.

Next, Cold Observation let me estimate an opponent's stats more accurately. The Mana Heart improved mana recovery a bit more. And Deadeye raised my accuracy.

Finally, after practicing wrapping mana around the 5mm rounds for my HK416, a skill called Magic Bullet had been created.

The skill was simple: just coat a bullet in mana. Same idea as those guys under the Demon King of Pursuit wrapping mana around their arrows.

The rest didn't need a long explanation. Oh, and for the record — even though Enchant leveled up this time, no new attributes were added.

"Ugh…"

I forced myself upright, fighting through the throbbing pain in my skull. Conveniently, Shop User's update timer was about to end.

…Finally finished updating.

At the completion message, I immediately activated Shop User.

…They said they were optimizing it. The UI does look cleaner, I'll give them that.

The General Shop had quite a few new products added. For example, the world's sourest candy…?

The moment I saw the first item, my brain short-circuited.

"…Isn't this the Mega Sour Raspberry Candy that was trending a few years ago?"

After that came Pepper X — the world's hottest pepper — a carrot knife, an obsidian knife, toys kids would play with, and so on… a whole pile of bizarre junk had been registered.

Wait — those things weren't even in the shop before?

"………Haa."

They spent sixty hours updating just to add this garbage…?

Frustration boiled up from deep in my gut, and I let out a small sigh.

Calm down first. After the General Shop and the Dokkaebi Bag, there was a newly added shop. I decided to check that.

If the new shop was also full of weird junk, I would just offer Mega Sour Raspberry Candies to the Constellations and work off the stress that way.

Why offer the world's sourest candy to Constellations? That didn't matter. I just wanted to watch them suffer.

With a thought that would have made any Constellation pale, I tapped the shop window labeled "??? Shop" next to the Dokkaebi Bag.

"Story Shop?"

I tilted my head and started examining the products one by one.

And the moment I grasped what this shop actually was, my eyes went wide with pure shock.

"Holy shit…?!"

What the hell is this? Are they allowed to sell this stuff?!

Power Elixir, Zhonya's Hourglass, Elixir of Recovery, Phoenix Feather, Dead Cat, Explosive Tag, Senzu Bean, Saint Quartz?

This is insane… MapleStory, League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter, Mabinogi, Binding of Isaac, Naruto, Dragon Ball, Fate/Grand Order — items from every game, manga, and anime imaginable were all for sale.

Plenty of them were useful, sure. But there was a problem.

"…Are they ripping people off? Most of the broken, game-breaking items are single-use? And they start at hundreds of thousands of coins and go up into the tens of millions?"

Single-use and still ridiculously expensive.

Potions and consumables were at least in the tens-of-thousands range, but even those were permanently deleted from the Story Shop item list upon purchase.

Same for the other one-time items. Bleach's Bankai, Dragon Ball's Dragon Balls, Naruto's Outer Path Demonic Statue, and so on…

A handful of items could be kept permanently, but those were priced like the broken single-use ones — minimum hundreds of thousands of coins, some running into the tens of millions.

"…No, wait. There are a few that only cost a few thousand coins."

About one in a hundred. And those were all consumables.

I scratched my head while staring at the Story Shop item list.

Can I even use this…? It burns through way too many coins.

I currently had 1.1 million coins on hand. But buying just a few decent items from this Story Shop would vaporize everything I'd saved up.

"…………Hmm."

I fixed my eyes on a few particular products in the list.

"With these…"

I could change the story. I could bend the plot toward the ending I wanted.

Hope was starting to take shape.

…Looks like I need to stockpile a lot more coins.

Having decided how I would move forward, I pushed myself up from the ground.

Even just to farm coins, I have to take down the Disaster of Questions first.

With Shop User usable again, I decided to buy the skills and packages I needed.

"I'll purchase White Pure Demonic Energy and Flight Maneuver from the Dokkaebi Bag."

Not done yet. My whale spending spree wasn't over.

"Next, I'll purchase Growth Package I, Growth Package II, the New Scenario Commemorative Package, and Extra EXP for 7 Days from the Dokkaebi Bag."

I glared at the floating messages and shouted back.

"If you're jealous, go hold a million coins like me! Or raise an Incarnation like me!!"

And even if someone like that existed, the big nebulae would have already snatched them up!

"Oh, right. From the General Shop, I'll take a box of Tylenol for the headache and a box of Bacchus. And one Intermediate Mana Recovery Potion from the Dokkaebi Bag."

I tore open the Tylenol box, popped two pills into my mouth, then dumped three bottles of Bacchus into the mana potion and mixed them thoroughly. And then—

Gulp, gulp.

"Ahhh! Okay, I can live again!"

With some mana restored, my body — which had felt like it weighed a ton — lightened just a little.

Then I felt a gaze from beside me and turned my head. Shin Yooseung was staring at me blankly.

I scratched my head at that look, put on an awkward smile, and whispered,

"…Don't go telling the scary unnies that this oppa blew this much money, okay?"

Nod, nod.

Thankfully, my good little Shin Yooseung bobbed her head in understanding. I smiled and handed her three bottles of Bacchus.

"Oppa, what's this?"

"One bottle is for our Yooseung to drink. Give the other two to Sooyoung and Dokja. Think you can handle that?"

"Yes! I'll be right back, Oppa!"

Even for a small errand, Shin Yooseung beamed without a hint of complaint, carefully hugged the three Bacchus bottles to her chest, and ran off toward Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja, who were training a short distance away.

That adorable sight pulled a small smile from me, and I looked to my side.

There sat Lycaon in a lotus position, deep in meditation.

This guy's been meditating this whole time.

That morning, Kim Dokja had come over to Lycaon and me and shared the secret formula for Path of the Wind that Yoo Joonghyuk had realized in the webtoon.

Thanks to that, Lycaon was currently meditating after a major breakthrough, just like in the webtoon.

I could've told him myself and pocketed the coins, but handing that small change over to Dokja is fine.

Growl.

"Mm… I'm getting hungry."

I lifted my head and looked at the sky. Evening was approaching; the sunset was starting to paint the horizon.

I'll be meeting Yoo Joonghyuk soon.

Better eat something first.

I turned my head toward Shin Yooseung, who was already running back to me.

"I gave them to Sooyoung unnie and Dokja unnie just like you said, Oppa."

"Thanks."

"Hehe…"

I chuckled at the way she looked up at me with sparkling eyes and ruffled her hair.

Then, with practiced ease, I lifted her onto my shoulders and asked,

"Yooseung."

"Yes?"

"Want to sneak off and eat something without Sooyoung unnie and Dokja unnie knowing?"

"Um… won't they get mad if they catch us later?"

"It's fine, it's fine. We can just run away into the sky."

"Huh…? The sky?"

Shin Yooseung stared at me blankly, then her face lit up with shock. I grinned at her reaction and activated the newly acquired Flight Maneuver.

Whoosh!

"W-wha?!"

As I suddenly floated up into midair, Shin Yooseung panicked and wrapped both arms around my head.

"Yooseung, this oppa has finally achieved his dream."

"Y-your dream?"

"Yeah. My dream."

The dream of flying through the sky, that is.

With Shin Yooseung on my shoulders, I started soaring through the air. And then I attempted the Slick Back challenge mid-flight.

"Haha! I can finally do the Slick Back dance!"

I'd practiced it endlessly on the ground, never got it right, and eventually given up — but trying it in the air somehow made the whole dance come easily.

Down below, Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja stopped their training and stared up at me, muttering.

"…What a broken, overpowered character. Now he can fly? Is he actually the protagonist?"

"…Right? He said he couldn't use the Dokkaebi Bag for two days. Looks like the lock's off. Buying Flight Maneuver proves it."

"But what's he doing with the kid? What if she falls?"

"Dunno. He'll handle it. Jinwoo dotes on Yooseung."

Having finally fulfilled my dream of flight, I spent a full fifteen minutes soaring around with Shin Yooseung on my shoulders, completely forgetting how hungry I was.

Then a loud voice rose from the ground.

"There's an injured person, please help! The wounds are serious!!"

"Huh?"

What, is it already time to meet Yoo Joonghyuk?

Checking the Constellation messages, I was certain the "injured person" that woman was shouting about had to be Yoo Joonghyuk.

Then Shin Yooseung whispered softly near my ear.

"Oppa, someone got hurt."

"Then should we go check it out too?"

"Yes, let's!"

I flew toward the voice. By the time I arrived, Han Sooyoung and Kim Dokja were already there.

"Took you long enough."

"…Ahem. Flying was just too much fun."

Han Sooyoung narrowed her eyes and glared at me. I offered an awkward smile under that look and made my excuse.

When I turned to Kim Dokja, she was glaring into empty air — probably mid-Dokkaebi communication with Bihyung.

I left her to it, walked past the woman who'd been shouting about an injured person, and checked the figure collapsed on the ground.

It was Yoo Joonghyuk.

I looked down at her and pretended to be surprised.

"Yoo Joonghyuk?"

"Someone you know, Oppa?"

"Ah, yeah. She's… Dokja's friend? A comrade who shared life and death with us? Something along those lines."

"…I don't really get it, Oppa."

Shin Yooseung tilted her head with a puzzled expression. Honestly, I wasn't sure how to describe her either.

She wasn't really Kim Dokja's friend, and calling her a comrade was a stretch when the second she opened her eyes she'd try to swing a sword at both of us.

Han Sooyoung had already come up behind me and asked Kim Dokja,

"…Found her. Now what?"

"What do you mean, what."

"We have to save her, right? This bastard is the protag— mmph?!"

I hastily clamped a hand over Han Sooyoung's mouth. When she glared at me, I pointed at Shin Yooseung with my eyes. Only then did she realize her mistake and give a small nod.

"Be careful."

"Ugh… sorry. My bad. Anyway, we do have to save her. But once we do…"

At Han Sooyoung's words, Kim Dokja, Han Sooyoung, and I all broke into cold sweat as the same memories hit us.

Kim Dokja remembered Yoo Joonghyuk's murderous presence at Biyeong Bridge. Han Sooyoung remembered her Avatar's head being stomped flat at Chungmuro. And I remembered the rooftop of the Theater Dungeon, where I'd (forcibly) made Yoo Joonghyuk do a princess cosplay (bootleg version) and nearly gotten cut down for it at Biyeong Bridge.

I carefully opened my mouth.

"…Can't we just patch her up lightly and bail?"

"…Or do you have something that could put a geas on her?"

"Her condition's critical — a light treatment and she'll die halfway through. And almost nothing sticks on Yoo Joonghyuk."

"Then lock her up somewhere… oh, right, let's lock her in Park Jinwoo's My Room."

"You trying to get my entire My Room inventory wrecked?"

Shin Yooseung, who had no idea about our circumstances, looked down at us and tilted her head.

Han Sooyoung sighed quietly.

"Then what? If we leave her, her stigma might activate. Damn it — if this bastard's stigma goes off, what happens to us?"

"We stop it first. Nobody knows what would happen."

I'd already heard from Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung during training that Yoo Joonghyuk was a regressor and the protagonist of the novel Ways of Survival, so I just nodded along with their assessment.

"…But why is she in this state? Blood coming from her mouth, nose, and ears? Someone hit her really har—"

I cut myself off mid-sentence and shot a look at Kim Dokja. She flinched, trembled, and put on a pitiful expression.

Han Sooyoung, who'd seen the same face, asked,

"Why that look? Suddenly all tragic?"

"…It's nothing."

"Well, you see…"

"Hey, Park Jinwoo! Shut up!"

I'd been about to tell Han Sooyoung that Kim Dokja was the one who'd done this to her, but Kim Dokja started glaring daggers at me.

I clamped my mouth shut.

"What the hell? Why cut off mid-sentence when you made me curious? What's going on?"

"Ask Dokja. She'd know."

And then we all saw it.

Whether a blood vessel had burst or not — Yoo Joonghyuk's eyes snapped open, streaming bloody tears, and locked onto us with a murderous glare.

Kyaaaaaaaaa——!!

"Kyaaaaak!!"

"Kehek…?! My e-ears?!"

Kim Dokja and Han Sooyoung screamed first and scrambled back from Yoo Joonghyuk. I was about to retreat too, but—

Shin Yooseung had wrapped her arms around my head and let out a massive scream of her own, and my ears rang with a sharp whine.

Realizing too late what she'd done, Shin Yooseung fretted and checked my face.

"Huk…! O-Oppa! Are you okay?!"

"Yooseung… what? I can't hear you…"

"O-Oppa…?!"

Ignoring the two of us, Kim Dokja kept her distance from the collapsed Yoo Joonghyuk and shouted at her.

"…Hey, can you knock that off already? It was a fair fight. Don't be so petty. You tried to kill me back then too, didn't you?"

Yoo Joonghyuk's lips started to move as she looked at Kim Dokja. Kim Dokja fell silent, watching her.

Then Yoo Joonghyuk closed her wide-open eyes and lost consciousness again. Kim Dokja approached her and spoke.

"…Yoo Joonghyuk. Can you hear me?"

Kim Dokja knelt on one knee beside her and began examining her condition. The woman standing nearby looked at Kim Dokja and asked,

"Um… are you by any chance Ms. Kim Dokja?"

Kim Dokja gave a small nod.

"The whole way here, she kept saying it. Please take me to Kim Dokja…"

Han Sooyoung carefully sidled up next to Kim Dokja and asked,

"Hey, what the hell is going on?"

"………."

Kim Dokja stayed silent at the question. From empty air she pulled out a tree branch, a single horn, one potato, two bottles of water, and something crystalline.

Then she turned her head toward me.

"Hey, Park Jinwoo. Pull a big pot, a ladle, a soup bowl, and one spoon out of My Room for me."

"Ugh… fine."

Barely recovered from Shin Yooseung's sonic assault, I pulled the requested items from My Room and handed them over.

Kim Dokja quickly set everything out, lit the Magic ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hearth, and set the big pot on top of it.

Then she dumped the ingredients she'd bought from the Dokkaebi Bag into the pot.

Han Sooyoung watched and asked curiously,

"What are you making?"

"An antidote."

"So you decided to save her after all?"

Kim Dokja glanced at Yoo Joonghyuk as she answered.

"This bastard came looking for me on purpose."

"On purpose? Why?"

"I don't know either."

Han Sooyoung propped her chin on her hand and continued.

"Maybe she came to ask for help? Even Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn't show up as a bloody mess just to kill you."

"Yoo Joonghyuk would never do that."

"How would you know?"

"I just know. That's the kind of woman Yoo Joonghyuk is."

Soon the ingredients in the pot started bubbling. A short while later, the contents had turned into a horrific green soup.

I pinched my nose against the terrible smell rising from the pot and spoke.

"……Are you sure this is an antidote and not poison? The smell alone is nightmarish."

"Right? Drinking this seems more likely to kill her."

"Then it can't be helped."

"Our Dokja sure knows how to say irresponsible things…"

At last Kim Dokja ladled the soup into a bowl, scooped some up with the spoon, and started feeding it to Yoo Joonghyuk.

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head away.

"Horrible… how can you put something like that… into a person's mouth…"

The soup's color, appearance, and smell completely killed my appetite. Han Sooyoung, on the other hand, seemed fine with it.

She looked down at Kim Dokja feeding Yoo Joonghyuk and snickered.

"Well, well. Look who showed up playing the devoted wife."

"You want to do it?"

"Hell no."

"……………."

I stared at Gabriel's message floating in front of me with a look of pure disbelief.

In this world, since both Yoo Joonghyuk and Kim Dokja were women, Gabriel was filling Uriel's role.

"…………."

That's your line, Uriel.

One side BL, the other side GL. The dignity of the archangels was hitting new lows every day.

I looked up at the sky with a worried expression as I watched Uriel and Gabriel's messages.

Please tell me the other archangels aren't like this… The rest are normal, right? Matching the angel image I have in my head?

A short while later, after downing about a bowl of that grotesquely twisted underworld green soup, Yoo Joonghyuk let out a faint groan and slowly began to open her eyes.

Seeing that, I sent Shin Yooseung from my shoulders over to Han Sooyoung and gestured for her to back off.

Han Sooyoung nodded at my signal, took Shin Yooseung, put distance between them and Yoo Joonghyuk, and hid behind a building.

Whether we did that or not, Kim Dokja looked down at the now-conscious Yoo Joonghyuk and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠asked,

"Hey. You with us?"

"…………."

Kim Dokja must have used Midday Tryst — a brief silence passed between the two of them, and then Kim Dokja's face twisted as she looked down at Yoo Joonghyuk.

Her expression hardened.

I saw Kim Dokja's face and understood.

The time had come.